This was always going to be an odd one to judge, and by judge, we mean in the production sense. Here is an ersatz TARDIS team, a replica edition of the crew that brought Doctor Who into the world. And so how ought they to be played? Like carbon copies of the originals, or should they take the words off the page and go their own way with them – much like the TARDIS team in the two 1960s movies did? Moreover, ought these imposters to be placed in stories that reproduce the feel of the 1964 TV series, or should a bit of artistic license be applied there too, just as it was in those movies?
By choosing to indulge in a series of adventures involving the reproduction time-travellers as seen in Mark Gatiss’ docudrama An Adventure in Space and Time – an eminently valid decision both business-wise and artistically – Big Finish have of necessity had to find their own answers to both of those questions, and the truth is they’ve fumbled the answer just a bit. In the first instance, there are no impersonations of the indelible originals here, although David Bradley’s first Doctor approaches the feel of William Hartnell’s rendering if not necessarily the execution (and is a very close fit for the Doctor he played in Twice Upon a Time, happily). Alas, although totally understandably, rather than present this as an alt-universe substitute for the series’ early days. Instead, the stories Bradley and company have been given to inhabit are almost exactly the kind of thing Hartnell and his cohorts would once upon a time have found themselves involved in. Which makes for some very entertaining listening, in a ‘what if?’ kind of a way, but unfortunately also presents the listener with no option but to make like-for-like comparisons – which the new old team don’t always quite live up to.
Which isn’t to say they aren’t very good. Susan in particular, as played by Claudia Grant, is delightfully different in unexpected ways, and Jamie Glover is such a great actor you barely miss William Russell, who was always such a wonderful Ian. Bradley, of course, is commanding at the centre of it all, just exactly as quirky as Hartnell without remotely reproducing his idiosyncrasies, thus inviting the listener to suspend their disbelief more willingly than might have been the case. The biggest issue isn’t really an issue in any meaningful sense; Jemma Powell is perfectly charming as Barbara, perhaps upstaged by the others less by the performance than by the writing. Because while Jacqueline Hill would have taken anything she was given and stolen whichever scenes she was in, Hill is the one original of the team it is wholly impossible to replace in these circumstances or any other. The Dalek movies didn’t even bother trying – the Barbara of Dr. Who & the Daleks being essentially a completely different character – and maybe, just maybe, Big Finish might have been better avoiding the contrast by doing what Milton Subotsky did and going a different route entirely.
There is one other quite questionable decision, this being the alter-ego of James Dreyfuss’ character – a surprise we shan’t spoil here despite the alias being in all the promotional material. The presence of the Inventor, although neatly incorporated, sets a tone for the stories that sits at odds with their otherwise faux-authentic nature (there is even a cliff-hanger that relies entirely upon the listener’s foreknowledge of the later series), and any attempt to replicate the innocence of that first screen season falters as a result. There’s just no way to balance the premeditation of the character’s inclusion with the ingenuousness of those early days of unsophisticated exploration.
There are two four-part serials included here, the first of which is very much in the vein of The Sensorites, if thankfully without that story’s longueurs, and that would very easily have still functioned just as well without the additional peril resultant of the aforementioned cuckoo in the nest. It’s an otherwise likeable if inconsequential affair, either undermined or enlivened by its continuity repercussions; the listeners will have to determine how well that works for themselves.
The second is equally as inconsequential in plot terms, a “pure” historical centring around a natural disaster that basically settles for splitting the regulars up and then bringing them back together again, without having their narratives intersect. It badly misses the focus of a political event or character, but it does make some well-worn points in a pleasant enough way, and the occasionally oddly-accented but otherwise excellent guest cast lifts it no end.
With a slightly different creative approach, this could have been absolutely fascinating, a real eye into what might have happened had, say, Dennis Spooner been involved in setting up the series, rather than appearing towards the end of its first year. Instead, what we have is something of a missed – if nevertheless professional, entertaining and still rather thought-provoking – opportunity, and entirely understandably so; it was quite brave enough, perhaps, to produce a replacement first TARDIS team, without adding a replacement tone for the stories too. This is, then, an irresistible, if somewhat less than compulsory, halfway house.
THE FIRST DOCTOR ADVENTURES VOLUME 1 / PUBLISHER: BIG FINISH / DIRECTOR: NICHOLAS BRIGGS / WRITTEN BY: MATT FITTON, GUY ADAMS / STARRING: DAVID BRADLEY, CLAUDIA GRANT, JEMMA POWELL, JAMIE GLOVER, JAMES DREYFUSS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW (BF), MARCH 31ST (ELSEWHERE)
